New Month...

...means new recipes! With fall hitting hard right now, the oven and crock pot become my best friends! Fall cooking for us includes, soups and chilis, roasts and veggies, squash cooked all different ways, and APPLES! We have soooo many apples this year, and beautiful apples at that. We have two trees that have great baking apples and two that have such yummy eating apples. My goal this month is to come up with some creative ways to use our apples, as I come up with them I will post the recipes (if they are good, that is!).

Ethan can talk!

Yes, he has been saying words for a while, but just recently he finally started really talking and coping words. He is quite a bit behind his brothers in this area (they were talking in sentences by 16 months), but he is also quite advanced in other areas...like being able to scale the rock wall on our Menards playground set, by himself! It is so cute to see his personality come out as his vocabulary expands. Here are a few words I got on video the other night while we were waiting in the car while Ted was combining.

Mommy Push-ups

In case you were all wondering what a "mommy" push up looks like, here is some video of me just hanging out with the boys, doing some random pushups. When I went to save the video Landon said, "call the video Mommy Push-ups." Not sure how well you can actually see my push ups, but you get some good view of the boys (and fighting, hahaha)!

Thanks you Weelicious!

I don't think I have mentioned Weelicious on my blog yet? It is one of my favorite websites to find quick, easy, and healthy meals and snacks for the entire family.
This morning I made the Berry Delicious Oatmeal, which is always a hit with the entire family. This afternoon I will be trying out the recipe for today, Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. These cookies look so easy and so healthy to make. Weelicious is also on facebook and has this awesome program where she takes a picture of her son's packed school lunch daily, awesome ideas for healthy easy school lunches!

I had fresh raspberries from Aunt Lori for todays oatmeal and used Almond Milk, and then I added a few frozen blueberries to the boys' bowls to help cool it down. I also double this recipe and it is very tasty reheated!

Berry Delicious Oatmeal (Serves 2)
1 Cup Water
1 Cup Milk (almond, rice, soy or cow’s milk)
1 Cup Old Fashioned Oats (Five Minute Oats)
1 Tbsp Honey, Maple Syrup or Agave Syrup
1/2 Cup Blueberries, Blackberries and/or Raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1. Bring the water and milk to a boil.
2. Add the oats, reduce to a simmer over low to medium heat, stirring occasionally, and cook for 5-7 minutes or until thick and creamy.
3. Add the honey, maple syrup or agave and berries, cook an additional minute or until the berries are warmed-through and start to pop (I like to add frozen berries so the oatmeal cools faster for kids to eat).
4. Serve.

*If serving to a baby under 1 years old, don’t use honey

What's Done

I have been busy sewing, but not busy updating. So, this is going to be quite a bit in one post. Bear with me!

A small quilt, perfect for the stroller/carseat. It is super soft and cuddly velour on the back!

Ethan's Pants, flannel PJ pants

Trevor's Pants, he didn't want to be left out

Crayon Keepers

I only had markers near by when I took these pictures, obviously crayons would not go past the fabric!

Baby Leg Warmers (not just for babies, both Landon and Trevor love these on their legs and/or arms!)

I have also been busy canning all of our produce from our garden and fruit trees...pictures and more of that soon!

Recipe Sharing

So last week I was using up some stuff before it went bad on me, this week it has gotten a bit chilly outside and makes me want to cook nice hearty suppers. I can't take credit for either of these recipes (I got them both from friends), but I can share them for you all to enjoy. Chicken Tacos and Spaghetti Pie, both a huge hit with my kiddos!


EASY Chicken Tacos
How much easier can chicken tacos get, you ask? With this recipe you will have yummy, juicy chicken taco meat in about 5 minutes flat! Seriously, that's all the time it takes to prepare, just remember to put these in the crock pot late morning/early afternoon and you will be all set for supper that evening!
For a family of 5, and to have some leftovers (we are big fans of leftovers for lunch!) this is what I do, modify it to fit your needs/quantity.

• 6 Boneless skinless chicken breast, I usually use fozen
• Chicken Stock (I keep the boxes of Kitchen Basics chicken stock, it has honey instead of sugar and is all natural), I use about 3/4 of a box. **If you don't use it all and are not going to be using chicken stock during the rest of the week, freeze it in ice cube trays and then pop them into a freezer bag for future use!
• Taco Seasoning, I estimate this and for me it is probably about 4 Tb. maybe a tad more.

Place chicken into a crock pot, pour stock over chicken until it is almost covered, sprinkle taco seasoning over top to cover the chicken. Set your crock pot to low for 8 hours or high for 6 hours, put the lid on and forget about it!
Once the chicken is done take it out and it should just shred apart into small pieces. Put it into a bowl to serve and drizzle some of the left over juices to keep it moist (I like to pour more juices over any leftovers to keep it from drying out in to fridge).
Now you can use the taco meat for tacos, burritos, wraps, quesadillas, salads, etc.
***This is what we are having for supper tonight!***


Spaghetti Pie
Think spaghetti meets lasagna here, so good, especially on these soon to be fall evenings and then even better heated up for lunch!

• 1 pd ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 jar (15 1/2 ounces) spaghetti sauce ( a spicy sauce is better!)
• 8 ounces spaghetti, cooked and drained
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350, Cook beef, onion and green pepper in large skillet over medium-high heat until meat is browned. Drain fat. Stir in spaghetti sauce. Combine spaghetti, Parmesan cheese, eggs and butter in large bowl; mix well. Place on bottom of 13x9 ince baking pan. Spread cottage cheese over top; cover with sauce mixture. Sprinke with mozzarella cheese. Bake until mixture is thoroughly heated and cheese is melted, about 20 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings.
** I doubled this recipe (but did not double the onion of green pepper) and put it in a deep dish lasagna pan, also so easy to double this recipe and put one in the freezer for when you just don't feel like trying to figure out what to make for supper. Also, because of my pan size and nervous about over flowing while I was cooking the meat I didn't add the sauce to the meat and instead assembled it like this: spray your pan, layer the spaghetti mix, then the cottage cheese, followed by the meat mix, then the sauce, and finally sprinkle the top with cheese. I think I baked it for 40 minutes, just kept an eye on it to make sure the cheese didn't burn.

Restoring Honor

I have not had a chance (or have not taken the chance) to blog about my trip to Washington D.C. I went with my mom (thanks Mom!) and had a great time exploring a city that I had never been to before. We pretty much stayed on the National Mall, but with so much to learn, explore, and see there was really no need to go anywhere else! I had an amazing time, and wished my boys could have been with me to see some of the sites. The history is overwhelmingly incredible, just the monuments can take your breath away. Then the Smithsonian Museums, can't even begin to explain how fun these were to explore. These are a must see for my boys. If you noticed my quote this week, both Landon and Trevor told me to never go to that museum again without them. I was telling them all about it and showing them pictures and they so wanted to go right then and there!

I also got to go to a very inspirational rally. It was put on by Glenn Beck, and was titled "Restoring Honor". If you were not there, please, please, please do not believe what the media had to say about this or lack of coverage it got. It was a HUGE rally, I would say at least 600,000 people were in attendance starting at the Lincoln Memorial, completely filled shoulder to shoulder back to the start of the Washington Monument. That is a lot of people! So you read Glenn Beck, and then probably thought this was some huge political thing, right? Not at all true, no politics were ever brought up threw the entire four hour rally. It was all about RESTORING HONOR.

What does that mean, you ask? It was all about looking to God and restoring honor within yourself through God and going out from there. Then restoring honor in your family, in your community, so on and so forth. It was a very religious rally, lots of tears and real life stories, trial, and tribulations. God is the answer! How will we find the next GREAT leader if we do not have honor and God present in our children's lives? We won't! Let your children see you pray, pray with your children and be so very thankful for the many, many blessings God has bestowed on us all! Take the time to restore honor within  yourself, within your marriage, within your children. You might just raise the next GREAT leader of this wonderful country The United States of America!

I am in the process of editing/uploading some video clips of the rally and will post them as soon as I get a chance.

On the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream..." speech, here is his niece.

Inspirational Music
Sorry, all morning and the video was still not loaded:(

Breakfast and/or After School Snacks

I was in major need of using up zucchini, blueberries, and two over ripe bananas (think fruit fly invasion!). I thought about a few recipes that we like; Blueberry Muffins, Chocolate Zucchini Bread, but that still left my bananas that were starting to attract fruit flies. Rethought my plans and put the blueberries in zucchini bread and the bananas and chocolate in the muffins. This afternoon my house smelled so good with the aroma of sweet bread and muffins. Here are the recipes (original, along with my "healthy" tips/changes).

Zucchini Blueberry Bread

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

• 1 cup vegetable oil (*I did 1/2 cup of oil and 1/2 cup of applesauce)

• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 1/4 cups white sugar (*I only did 2 cups of sugar, could substitute with honey)

• 2 cups shredded zucchini

• 3 cups all-purpose flour (*I did 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1 1/2 all purpose)

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

• 1 pint fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans. Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (*I did 1 cup all purpose and 3/4 cup whole wheat flour)

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 egg

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (*I did 1/2 applesauce instead of oil)

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (*I didn't measure, I had two bananas so that's what I used)

• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in bananas and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

**These are a favorite of my boys, we like to make them in mini muffin tins!

Laura's Diaper

A big Thank You to Laura for your order. Your diaper is done and headed to the post office first thing tomorrow morning! If you want a diaper like Laura's, check out my Hyena Cart to build your own custom diaper.

(check out my new logo!)

Sleeping Beauties

I haven't blogged about the boys in a while and am taking the time this morning to do so. I like to open my blog every day to at least look at my blinkie "Every Day Matters", it puts me in the right frame of mind and I need to remind myself that every day with my boys is such a blessing and I am so lucky to be home with them and I don't want to take that for granted! I got a little off subject, so back to the boys.

I redid the boys' room, about a month ago I painted and Landon picked out new bedding and Ted put  up new trim and a new ceiling fan. All we have left to do in the room is to get a big shelf made and installed. These pictures are before the trim was up, right after I finished painting. We moved Ethan's crib onto the the wall with the stripes and out of our room, it is nice to have our room "back" so to speak.

If you know Ethan, you know he has been wise beyond his year in the sense that he pretty much thinks he is four and not one. Well, within the last few weeks he has started refusing the highchair. Refuse as in throws a huge tantrum, flops, flails, and throws his food on the floor if I try to put him in the highchair. I have found a way to combat this one, don't feed him until he is really hungry...he will sit anywhere is he is hungry enough (usually). Another, "I'm too big for that thing" that Ethan has decided is his crib. He refuses to sleep in it and has transitioned so easily to sleeping with his older brothers in the full bed. I took this picture the other morning while they were still sleeping. 

Every Day Matters!!

Scentsy Giveaway!

I love giveaways and I love scentsy, put them together equals double the love. Check out Dandy Giveaway for a chance to win some free scentsy!

Don't know what scentsy is? Check out my friend, Dawn's, website to learn all about the wickless candles and burners! You will not regret your scentsy purchase, and for those with kids you never have to worry about a flame or getting burns. The wax never gets hot enough to burn!

Zucchini, so.much.zucchini.

There are so many things you can make with zucchini. I use them instead of spagetti noodles, we saute them, put them in omelets, grill them, make boats out of the ones I forget to pick and then they grow huge, zucchini bread (w/ chocolate chips or raisins) is a favorite of my boys.

(posting derailed by Ethan taking his diaper off on the stairs. His diaper that was full of poop, and then sitting on the stairs with is bare butt that was full of poop. Ethan and my stairs are now clean, the diaper has seen better days but I will get to that once I finish this!)

Back to zucchini, seriously how interesting can you be while talking about zucchini, I know. BUT you don't want to miss this recipe, it is a favorite of ours and one you should try. Today I decided to make a treat out of one of our zucchinis that got a bit (okay, much more than a bit) too big. Zucchini cake! This is a cake that I don't feel guilty making, no it is not perfect and super healthy, but it does have a lot of good stuff in it and it tastes even better. On to the recipe, sorry for the long winded post, something I need to work on!

Zucchini Chocolate Snack Cake

• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (whole wheat flour will do)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (low fat)
• 1/3 cup canola oil (I used 1/3 cup apple sauce instead)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup zucchini, shredded
• 3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, divided

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare an 11x8 inch pan by coating with cooking spray.

Combine flour through salt. In a mixer, whisk together eggs and sugar, then add the yogurt, oil, and vanilla until well combined. Add the flour mixture to the yogurt mixture, 1/2 of it at a time. Last, fold in the zucchini and half of the chocolate chips. Poor into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until sides start to pull away from the edge and it looks slightly browned (also a knife should come out clean when inserted). Poor the remaining chocolate chips on top of the hot cake and let them melt (I put it back in the oven that is turned off for a few more minutes to get the chips to melt faster). Cool and serve. It will clump and break if cut and served while it is too hot, just ask Landon and Trevor about that.

The boys all got a piece today for afternoon snack and Landon and I had this conversation:

Landon:YUM! Mom, there's not even zucchini in it.

Me, pointing to the pieces of zucchini in his cake: Yes there is, see those green things in there? That's the zucchini.

Landon, seeming quite please: Well, you can't even taste it! Trevor, you can't even taste the zucchini!

Another Bag

I love making these, they take about a day and a half to two days depending on how much time I get...great weekend project when Ted is around!

Diaper Bag.

I have been wanting to tackle.....the bag. I finally got a pattern and made one up quick in a day. It was okay, but I changed a lot of the pattern and the directions for it were really hard for me to follow so I just winged it. Then I came across an awesome tutorial on the blog A Mingled Yarn, it's called the Hip Mama Diaper Bag. This tutorial is so well written and soooo easy to follow, easily a beginner sewer could tackle this! Here is my first attempt at the Hip Mama Diaper Bag, I know more about how it goes together and what I can improve so I know my next one will be much better! Another plus is that once everything is cut out it sews up really fast (easily within one day, even with 3 little boys running around!)....Try it out, and have fun sewing:)

Snatching 24kg for first time!

I haven't really posted much about my kettlebell adventures. I need to go back and do a few posts because a lot has happened for me with kettlebells the last several months, the biggest thing was that I became an RKC! It was the hardest weekend of my life thus far, and I would do it again in a heartbeat...AMAZING! This video was after class a few weeks ago, it actually didn't feel that hard to snatch 50 some pounds.